House Votes To Repeal Partner-Benefits Law

In a defeat for gay rights advocates, the House voted Wednesday to repeal a District of Columbia law that allows city workers to register domestic partners for health benefits.

Lawmakers voted 249-172 in favor of a rider to the city’s 1996 spending plan.

The measure’s sponsor, Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., said the law, which also gives gay city residents the legal right to visit their partners in the hospital, contributes to the “moral and legal erosion of the traditional family.”

Democrat Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia’s non-voting delegate to Congress, lobbied vigorously to retain the law. She said it costs the city nothing and protects the elderly and disabled.